Johannes Brahms
' Johannes Brahms' (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into aLutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished. Tossup Questions # This composer included an allegretto quasi menuetto second movement in his 1st Sonata for Cello and used stanzas from Goethe's Harzreise im Winter for his Alto Rhapsody. This creator of Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel wrote a first symphony sometimes called "Beethoven's Tenth." He used the text of Luther's translation of the Bible for a choral work written after the death of his mother, the (*) German Requiem. For 10 points, name this German composer of the Academic Festival Overture, and a famous Lullaby. # One of this man's compositions is sometimes called Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale as it is unclear if Haydn composed the central theme. He wrote a D-minor work as a dramatic companion to another work which reworked various student drinking songs. This composer of the Tragic Overture and (*) Academic Festival Overture wrote a first symphony which evoked Beethoven, and used the Luther Bible rather than Latin for his German Requiem. For 10 points, name this German composer of a famous lullaby. # Like Rachmaninoff, he used the twenty-fourth caprice for his Variations on a Theme of Paganini. He used the drinking song "Gaudeamus Igitur" (GOW-day-ey-mus EE-gih-tour) as the basis for a work written upon receiving an honorary degree from Breslau, his Academic Festival Overture. This longtime friend of Clara Schumann composed a (*) German Requiem seven years before premiering a symphony nicknamed "Beethoven's Tenth." For 10 points, name this German composer, who also wrote a notable lullaby. # his composer's reputation improved dramatically after Arthur Schoenberg wrote an essay championing his music as progressive. This illness of Clara Schumann inspired this composer's Four Serious songs. He included student songs such as "We Have Built a Stately House" and "Gaudeamus Igitur" in a piece this man composed upon receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau. That work is this composer's Academic Festival Overture. For 10 points, name this composer of the German Requiem, who is grouped with Bach and Beethoven as the "three B's." # This composer used themes by Haydn, Handel, and Paganini as basis for sets of variations, a form that he first ported to the orchestra as an independent piece with no soloist. The oboe is prominent in the second movement of his D-major violin concerto. He wrote a set of twenty-one dances, originally for piano four hands, including a fifth entry based on a csardas of Keler Bela. He used the text of the Luther Bible to compose a piece inspired by the death of his mother and the attempted suicide of Robert Schumann. His first symphony is sometimes dubbed "Beethoven's Tenth." For 10 points, name this composer who wrote A German Requiem and the Hungarian Dances.